The Jackal
by penguin69
Summary: Dean and Sam hunt a ghost but it turns out to be harder than they thought.This is my first attempt at writing a story. I hope you like it. Please reveiw.
1. Chapter 1

The Jackal 

Chapter 1 

"So let me see if I understand this correctly" she said picking up her glass and taking a sip of her whisky. She grimaced at the taste, not because she didn't like the drink, she actually loved whisky but because it didn't matter how many times she told the barman she didn't want any, he always insisted on putting ice in it. Such a waste of a good drink she thought and looked back towards the man sitting across from her. "So you're in town, with your brother, investigating a series of murders that happened decades apart spanning nearly a century which all had similar scenarios. Whilst the police have never made any links between them, you claim they were committed by the same man. No, sorry! not the same man, the vengeful spirit of a man who was hanged years ago for the murder of a young girl. Not only this, but right now your brother is trying to find where this creep is buried so you can go to his grave, dig him up, cover him in salt and burn his bones. Which according to you is what you have to do to stop evil ghosts." 

She said the last sentence with a smile on her face. How could you keep a straight face whilst saying that? She let out a sigh and leaned back on her chair trying to read the man's face. "You don't believe me do you?" he asked. "Honey, there isn't enough whisky in this bar to make that story believable." Even as she said this a doubt flashed across her mind. She prided herself on being able to tell when people where lying to her and she had read him perfectly earlier when he had tried to hustle her at pool and she had ended up taking his money instead. Now every instinct in her was yelling that he was being truthful while her mind refused to believe it. 

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She had met Dean earlier that night in the same bar where they were sitting now. She had been playing pool, alone, at her favourite table. That's what she liked about this bar, it might be the only one in town, but it was always quiet. A bit of a dump but somewhere she could play pool in peace. She looked around the room. It was dark and damp, the paint was pealing off the wall and she was sure that there was the hint of vomit in the air tonight but it was so faint that when she tried to smell it she couldn't. There were booths on the wall to her right and the bar was on her left with the front door straight ahead of her. As usual there were only three other people in the bar and all of them were far from sober. Sometimes she wondered if they were even human. 

She circled the pool table to line up her next shot. It was an easy in, the ball was on the lip of the pocket. She sighed, it was never fun when it was easy. As she bent over to take her shot she saw the door open and someone step inside. Intrigued because all the regulars were already comatose in their usual seats she glanced up from the end of the cue to see Dean walk into the bar. It was obvious to her he had come into the bar hoping to find a hot girl to have fun with and she saw from the look that flashed across his face that he thought this wasn't going to be the case but it was only there for a second before his grin returned. He must have just settled for getting drunk instead, she thought and returned her attention to her game. 

She had toyed with the idea of making a move on him. He was the best looking man she had ever seen but she didn't think she was his type. It wasn't that she thought she was ugly or anything but this guy clearly went for the model type. You know the ones who would eat celery and then have to be sick. The ones who's boobs are either so small they've never had to wear a bra in their lives or are so fake that they have their own in-built scaffolding and have no need for a bra. She also wasn't really in the mood for the effort of a one night stand. She couldn't be bothered trying to get up early the next morning so she could sneak out before he was awake and she definitely wasn't in the mood to lie in and have to deal with the awkwardness and the excuses when he did wake up. So she didn't bother. 

She took her shot. The noise made Dean turn to look at her as she walked to the end of the table for her next shot. He most likely hadn't see her when he had first walked in as the bar was dark and the low light over the pool table would mean she was out of sight from the door of the bar until she walked around from behind it. She caught his eyes and a brief, bad thought entered her mind so she bit her lip and returned her attention to her game. Another easy shot, her day wasn't getting any better. 

"Want a game?" she turned and there he was, right next to her. Man he moves quietly, she thought as he held out his hand. "I'm Dean" 

"Alex" she said and shook his hand, a little annoyed that she was no longer playing alone but at least he was good to look at. He was setting up the game when he said "want to make it interesting?" Maybe this will be fun after all she thought as she went to break. 

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During the game they had talked and that was when Alex realised that he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer but they had had a laugh and she was actually having a good time. after a few games they had moved on to have a few drinks and continue the fun. Now she had discovered he was a little nuts. It was a shame because he was so cute. Why were all the attractive men crazy? 

"You all right?" Alex jumped, she had been lost in thought. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine." she flashed a smile and as she did she looked up, another man had entered the bar. Taller than Dean and cute as well. This is a good night for meeting guys in this bar. He saw them and made straight for Dean, when he got to the table he leant over and said "We have a problem" 

Well that was it. Alex had left the two guys at the bar. Apparently a few years back there had been a series of storms and the cemetery had flooded. Unfortunately it was on the side of a hill with a road about half way down that cut the grounds in half. At this point there had been a wall holding back the soil but it wasn't strong enough to support the extra weight of the water that year. The wall had collapsed and a mud slide destroyed most of the graves on its way down the hill, including the grave of James Jackalson the supposed evil ghost. James had been a freak. He liked to stalk women, any type he wasn't fussy and really didn't care. When they were asleep, he would break into their houses and rip them up beyond recognition earning him the nick name "Jackal". Alex had had enough of supernatural hocus pocus and she, definitely had too much alcohol in her system to stomach tales of mutilation, so she'd decided to call it a night. She left the boys wondering what to do next and started to walk home. 

At least she tried the best she could to walk home. Why had she gotten into that drinking competition? They never ended well and her head was going to get it's own back in the morning. So far on her journey home she had gone over on her ankle several times, one of which had resulted in her trying to tackle a four story building, shoulder first. It wasn't hurting right now but she wasn't looking forward to tomorrow especially with the hangover of the century on its way. It's cold tonight for this time of year. 

Eventually she made it back. She fell through her front door and just lay on the floor for a little while. It was comfortable and she didn't have the hand eye coordination to get up straight away. With her left foot she shut the door and tried to focus on anything. "I've got to get up before I sleep here." She had no idea why she was talking to herself but sometimes its just nice to hear a voice, especially when you live on your own. She heaved herself off the floor and onto her knees, crawled down the corridor and into her bedroom. leaning against the foot of her bed to take off her shoes and started to undress. When she was down to her underwear she pulled herself onto her bed and slept. 

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Dean wasn't at all happy about letting Alex walk home alone. There was a ghost out there intent on killing women and he'd just let her walk out of the bar drunk. That was stupid. 

"Dean! are you even listening to me." Sam was frowning again "I said, What are we going to do? The only thing keeping this guy here are his bones which according to records were washed away years ago." Dean leaned back in to his chair and drank from his bottle whilst playing with a coaster. He wasn't in the right mood for this. Everything had been strange recently. All Hell had broken loose, quite literally, the thing they had been training for their entire lives was over and he didn't know what to do anymore. Of course he would still hunt, because they had to, people would die other wise but now he had no main purpose and he was drunk. 

He had come into this bar for two reasons. To get drunk and to get laid and he'd been real disappointed when the only people he saw were three old drunks but then he'd seen Alex. She was pretty hot and he had tried to charm her but it hadn't worked, which also had him confused as he had never failed to get a girl before. She was definitely an interesting woman. He wasn't sure why he had told her everything but he was glad he had. It had felt good to talk to someone other than Sam, even though she clearly thought he was mad. She had listened to it all without calling him names or throwing her drink at him. She just listened. He'd never met anyone like her. 

"Dean!" Sam was shouting now "Look, I know I promised you a night off and that I would do the research and, by the look of it, you really don't need to finish that beer but we have to do something." 

"What exactly is it we are supposed to do?" Dean snapped. He was little pissed at Sam, he'd been having a lot of fun but as soon as as his brother had shown up Alex had left. 

"Well I don't know Dean" Sam pouted "It's not normally as complicated as this but at the moment and until I can think of a way to stop this creep, I think we should try damage control." 

"And how do we do that? all the attacks so far have been random." 

"That's what I thought too until I looked at a map. See this." Sam pulled a map out of his bag and spread it out on the table. Dean saw the suspicious look the barman gave them but they got that a lot. There were red stickers on the map which probably showed where the attacks had taken place. Every one of the victims had been attacked in their own homes and they had nothing in common but as he looked at the map he saw what Sam had seen. The dots made a cross over the town but there was a gap that needed filling. 

"See here, there's a clear pattern and not only that but he's getting much more frequent in his attacks. From what I can tell, his next hit should be tonight and it should be about here." Sam pointed on the map at a large building in the middle of the gap. 

"Wait! thats where Alex lives! Come on - we've got to go!" 

TBC 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 

Her head was thumping. Why am I awake? It was still dark. She looked at her clock 03.00. It didn't help at all. She had no idea what the time had been when she had left the bar and absolutely no clue as to when she had managed to get into bed. Well she was awake now and very aware of the fact she needed the bathroom and went to roll off the bed. 

"AHHH!" She had forgotten about her shoulder. I knew it would hurt like a bitch! She rolled the other way and walked down the hall to her bathroom. She didn't turn on the light because she knew her way around. 

Standing in her hallway she rubbed the side of her head, it hurt. "I'm never drinking again" I always say that. With a sigh she put her hands on her hips and saw something that wasn't right. From the mirror on the wall opposite she could see into her lounge and her T.V. was on. Not only on but it wasn't even tuned in, the screen just showed static. She went into her lounge very confused. I didn't have it on today. A little wary and breathing a little quickly she walked around her couch but she couldn't bring herself to go anywhere near the hissing box in front of her. "This is stupid, it's just all those ghost stories that have me spooked. It's only a T.V." 

It was that moment that the T.V. screen exploded. Alex jumped backwards and went over the arm of the sofa. Her head hit something hard and sent a pain so great through her entire body that for an instant she forgot what had just happened. Just as quickly everything came back to her and she sat bolt upright sending another pain through her head, although it wasn't as bad as the first time. Her flat was dark, darker than she thought it had been. The sofa was barely visible in front of her but she could make out the remains of her T.V. screen scattered everywhere with the tiny pieces of the screen giving an eery shimmer to almost every flat surface. 

Probably just a power surge and a faulty wire...maybe. Alex got to her feet with some effort. The back of her head was warm. She was probably bleeding. Great! I should probably go to a hospital. This will be fun to explain. She stumbled to the hall feeling a little sick and saw that the glass had manage to get out here as well. This is going to be fun to clean up. Turning back to her bedroom to get some shoes she looked up and saw a shadow. She closed her eyes, opened them and it was gone. This was turning out to be a very strange night. After only two steps, nausea swept over her and she had to stop and lean against the wall. 

Terror gripped her. She couldn't believe or understand what she was seeing. There was a man standing in the doorway leading to her bedroom. His face was distorted somehow and his fingers weren't fingers at all but claws. An ugly smile appeared on his face and he moved towards her. Alex picked up the first thing she could find, she didn't know what it was but she threw it. It was a great throw and would've knocked the guy out cold if it hadn't passed straight through his head. Now she was petrified. Everything Dean had said was true, he wasn't nuts and this was the creep he was hunting. Worse still he was here in her home coming after her. It was the strangest moment of her life, she was scared because there was an actual ghost in her appartment trying to kill her in a very gruesome way, and everything she had ever thought about the world was probably completely wrong. "Shit" 

He was by her side in seconds and she turned to look at his face. Whether it was the fact that she was virtually hysterical at this point, or whether it was true, all she thought she saw in its face was evil. Still a little woozy from the hit to the head she'd given herself earlier, Alex didn't react as quickly as she should have when the apparition raised his grotesque arm. The side of her face burned as it's claws slashed her cheek as she turned to run. The door had never seemed so far away. As she ran down the hall her right foot found a pile of shards from her T.V. and her knee gave way. Half way to the floor she grabbed the handle of her front door and managed to get her left foot under her to steady herself. Her head was throbbing, she could feel warmth running down her cheek, and she'd thought the shoulder was bad! The door opened and sweet cold air rushed over her face. She got to her feet and ran, straight into something hard. 

TBC 


End file.
